Chapter 8: Why Aren’t You Following the Script

Chapter 8: Why Aren’t You Following the Script

Chen Feng began to sing.

His voice had no distinctive qualities, and his singing skills were nothing to praise.

For him to sing this song with his terrible raspy voice was a complete waste.

But he was self-aware, so he had spent a lot of time practicing this song in his dreams.

Now, although his singing wasn’t great, he barely reached the level of a KTV microphone hog. He could show about thirty to forty percent of the song’s original charm.

Chen Feng sang with great effort.

He only glanced at Zhong Lei’s expression when he started singing.

Good, as expected, it was a destined encounter. This song was just right for her. Look at her little expression, so entranced.

Things were looking promising.

Zhong Lei was indeed shocked.

At first, she even felt a bit of regret for mocking Chen Feng the previous day.

This guy had real skills.

Regardless of how he played or sang, the songwriting ability Chen Feng displayed was admirable to Zhong Lei, who currently had zero mature works to her name.

Zhong Lei asked herself honestly, she couldn’t write a song like this now.

But… as she listened further, her expression gradually changed.

The lyrics of this song were a bit strange, as if they were hinting at something!

Finally, Chen Feng reached the chorus part. This part required hitting high notes, which was quite demanding on singing skills and vocal range. He didn’t force himself to try, as hitting wrong notes or going off-key would be embarrassing.

His singing and playing came to an abrupt stop.

Since he intended to sell the song to her, of course he shouldn’t sing the whole thing. He needed to hold something back.

At this point, it should be enough to lure her in, right?

Chen Feng slowly put down the guitar and looked at Zhong Lei with anticipation in his eyes.

Unexpectedly, the way Zhong Lei was looking at him now seemed like she wanted to pounce on him and hit him.

“What do you think of my song? I haven’t finished singing it yet. If you like it…”

“Chen Feng, that’s enough.”

Zhong Lei interrupted him, her teeth grinding.

Chen Feng was stunned. “Huh? What? What did I do now?”

“Chen Feng, I don’t need you to look up to me. I don’t need your pity. But I absolutely won’t allow you to mock me! I’m warning you, this is the last time you harass me! Goodbye!”

Zhong Lei suddenly dropped this harsh statement, then pushed past Chen Feng, stomped out, and slammed the door shut, leaving Chen Feng standing alone, bewildered in the narrow hallway.

He completely didn’t understand what had happened. Weren’t things fine just a moment ago? How did she suddenly explode again?

This Beethoven of yours is so moody!

After leaving, Zhong Lei’s face was still flushed bright red. She seemed both ashamed and angry.

She muttered under her breath, “Yes, I’m singing in a bar right now. I’m lowly, I’m humble! But you didn’t have to write a whole song just to mock me, did you? And you wrote it so well, I was actually moved by it? I’m really a psycho, and you’re a psycho too!”

Yes, she thought Chen Feng wrote this song to laugh at and mock her job.

She already felt inferior and depressed about being a resident singer in a bar. After sensing the implied meaning in Chen Feng’s lyrics, she was immediately flooded with shame and anger.

You couldn’t really blame her for being moody. Any normal girl would probably react similarly.

Chen Feng thought he meant well, but he actually pricked Zhong Lei’s fragile self-esteem.

Zhong Lei was at the lowest point in her life right now, seeing no hope. Mentally, she hadn’t yet gotten past that barrier to reach the stage of breaking out of her cocoon. It was the most sensitive time for her.

Life in the bar was already miserable enough. Every day she had to play mind games with those who coveted her looks. She was utterly fed up, cynical, but helpless.

Now she couldn’t stand anyone looking at her differently. She wrapped her lonely heart tightly in a body like a hedgehog’s.

Zhong Lei’s anger lasted until she got on the bus before it slightly eased.

Deep down, however, a strange sense of sorrow welled up inside her.

Someone she had never looked up to, someone she had bitterly mocked just yesterday, actually possessed such astonishing songwriting talent.

He probably didn’t originally intend to make fun of me, right?

Maybe it was because of my words yesterday that made him unhappy, so he wrote this song in just one day?

I… why don’t I have talent like this?

Within Zhong Lei’s anger just now, there was actually a bit of jealousy and resentment.

She turned her face away, looking at the traffic and bustling crowd outside the bus window.

She really didn’t want to admit it, but in her heart, she felt a little regret.

It was a bit of a pity not to hear the rest of the song.

She wondered what the cycle after the chorus was like, what variations there would be in that cycle, whether his subsequent lyrics would be less harsh, and whether the mocking tone would be less strong?

A song’s lyrics should have a structure, an emotional progression.

He wouldn’t spend the entire song mocking my wretched state, would he?

It’s all his fault. If he had finished singing it in one go, I might have been able to bear it until the end.

Why did you stop right after the first half, building up the pressure!

It’s a shame there’s no chance to hear it now.

Meanwhile, Chen Feng was sitting alone on the stool, sulking.

He was completely baffled.

So annoying.

Isn’t this the song you wrote yourself!

I sang it for you, planning to lift you up.

Shouldn’t you have been moved to tears by your own song?

Why aren’t you following the script? Why such a big outburst?

Which nerve of yours did I hit again?

Where did I look down on you?

A bad start. The plan to present “Dullness” to the original singer was dead in the water.

It seemed he could only sell “Dullness” to someone else.

Things became a bit more troublesome. Chen Feng wasn’t in the music industry. He didn’t know anyone in the field, had no reputation, and for the time being, didn’t know how to sell it. He could only rely on sheer luck.

Sing it himself?

Chen Feng hadn’t considered that. It would be a waste of resources, a complete misuse of something valuable.

Hanzhou City was located in Jiangnan Province. As the provincial capital, it had a permanent population of over ten million. Although it couldn’t compare to first-tier cities like Tiandu, Shangdu, and Huacheng, it was among the leading second-tier cities nationwide.

The Hanzhou municipal government placed great importance on the cultural and creative industries. As early as five years ago, they had established what was claimed to be Asia’s largest cultural and creative industrial park.

After several years of development, thousands of companies had settled in the industrial park, covering fields such as film and TV production, animation, gaming, literature, new media, and music.

The entire industrial park generated an annual GDP output of tens of billions and had now become the showpiece of Hanzhou City.

On the weekend, Chen Feng, dressed in a suit, appeared at the foot of Building 8 in District D of the industrial park.

He carried a guitar on his back, looking slightly desolate.

It had been over a week since he returned from his dreams. This past week had been quite a failure for him.